Search Box

Friday, September 24, 2010

HT:WeaselZippers.Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, along with Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, and Walter Isaacson, President and CEO of The Aspen Institute, announced today the formation of the Steering Committee and the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) commitments for Partners for a New Beginning (PNB).

Partners for a New Beginning is a non-partisan, non-profit organization established to harness private sector and civil society resources to advance the vision President Obama laid out in his June 2009 Cairo speech of renewed engagement with Muslims around the world based on mutual respect and responsibility. Secretary Albright serves as PNB’s Chair. Mr. Kent and Mr. Isaacson serve as Vice-Chairs.

This advisory group of prominent American leaders has committed to using their expertise, global networks, and access to resources to foster locally-driven public-private partnerships and projects to advance opportunity in Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities in four key areas: economic opportunity, science and technology, education, and exchange.

Today at the Clinton Global Initiative’s Annual Meeting, PNB announced its first commitments to increase access to finance, business capacity and development services; improve educational opportunities for students and teachers; foster physical and virtual exchange programs; and enhance science and technology solutions. These commitments will positively impact up to 500,000 people across the PNB targeted countries of Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, and West Bank/Gaza during the next five years.

Now lets look once who's among the "U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project".Leadership Group Members :

Madeleine Albright, Principal, The Albright Group LLC; former U.S. Secretary of State.

The guest speaker last week at Obama ’s Church. Dr. Ziad Asali.President and Founder, American Task Force on Palestine.

HT:HotAir.Judiciary Committee taking up confirmations of controversial bench nominees.Jeff Sessions is ringing the alarm bells on Judiciary Committee hearings set to take place today for five Barack Obama nominees to the federal bench. The Senate, which has few days left on its pre-midterms legislative calendar, wants to quietly move these five picks to floor votes while Republicans will still have difficulty blocking their confirmations. In at least two of the cases, and perhaps all five, people may want a better look at these appointments, which one can see here and now, as the hearing is already underway for a whole slate of nominations.Sessions’ office released the following criticisms of the five appointments he opposes.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

After Delhi's disgrace, the shame: Child labourers pictured working on construction sites in frantic effort to get Commonwealth Games stadiums ready.CNN find dozens of incidents involving children of seven and younger Save The Children 'concerned' .English athletes arrive to prepare for next week's events.India was yesterday building its chaotic Commonwealth Games venues with the toil and sweat of the country's children.Distressing pictures show children apparently as young as seven carrying hods and buckets as part of the Delhi's desperate bid to complete construction ahead of the opening ceremony a week tomorrow.The images, released by CNN, drew criticism from Save The Children. 'We are concerned about reports of young children working on construction sites,' said the charity.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

Russian-US crew fails to returns to Earth.Two Russians and a US astronaut aborted a return to Earth on Friday when their space capsule failed to separate from the International Space Station.”This situation has never occurred before,” a spokeswoman at Russian Mission Control near Moscow said, as space officials scrambled to determine the cause.Russia's space agency chief Anatoly Perminov told reporters at Mission Control that Dyson, Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko's return to Earth after nearly six months in space had been rescheduled for Saturday.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:PajamasMedia.Mainstream Islam Rejects Freedom of Conscience.The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will be meeting in Chicago later this month, sponsoring a program promoting values antithetical to the U.S. Constitution.This principle of freedom of conscience is also upheld in Article 18 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which further makes explicit the fundamental right to change one’s religion: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.Islamic Rulings:the issuance of such “rulings” by a so-called council of Muslim jurists in North America — antithetical to the protection of freedom of conscience enshrined in American law — is mirrored by the overwhelming refusal of mainstream Islamic organizations to sign a simple, unequivocal pledge composed and distributed one year ago by ex-Muslims living in America:To repudiate the threat from authoritative Sharia to the religious freedom and safety of former Muslims.Sadly, the OIC may find fertile grounds for any planned Islamization campaign in America, spearheaded by like-minded American Muslims.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Soros revealed as funder of liberal Jewish-American lobby.The Jewish-American advocacy group J Street, which bills itself as the dovish alternative to the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobby, has secretly received funding from billionaire George Soros despite previous denials that it accepted funds from the Hungarian-born financier and liberal political activist.Tax forms obtained by The Washington Times reveal that Mr. Soros and his two children, Jonathan and Andrea Soros, contributed a total $245,000 to J Street from one Manhattan address in New York during the fiscal year from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.Mr. Ben Ami in past interviews has described J Street as President Obama's "blocking back" in Congress, with the group billing itself as the lead Jewish-American group supporting elements in the Israeli political spectrum who favor negotiating a lasting two-state peace deal with the Palestinians.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Examiner Editorial: Obamacare is even worse than critics thought!Six months ago, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling American public. Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill's passage, we know much more about the bill than we did then. A few of the revelations.If you wonder why so many American voters are angry, and no longer give Obama the benefit of the doubt on a variety of issues, you need look no further than Obamacare, whose birthday gift to America might just be a GOP congressional majority.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Meet the Muslim Superheroes who are Ready to Indoctrinate American Kids.In the Islamic world, cartoons have a more sinister purpose. In Iran, on Al-Quds Day, Iranian TV schedules are filled with cartoons about evil Israelis with red eyes, shooting and murdering innocent doe-eyed Palestinians. For older kids, the heroes fight back, and even get martyred in the cause of Allah. Al-Quds day, named after the Arab term for Jerusalem and initiated by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1983, is a time for Iranian media to reinforce Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic propaganda.Muslims comprise only one and a half percent of the American population, but be prepared for the latest exercise in Muslim propaganda and toy promotion – “The Ninety-Nine”. This began life as a series of printed comic “super-hero” characters, each one representing one of the Ninety-Nine names of Allah.Muslims represent 1.5 % of the American population, but the President speaks almost 100 % of the time on their behalf?Reads the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:IslaminEurope.Rotterdam: Top official has links to radical Turkish organization.A top official in Rotterdam, Bilal Taner, is in contact with a Turkish radical-Islamist organization, which is fiercely anti-Israeli and anti-American, openly supports the Hamas terror organization and glorifies martyrdom for Jihadists.The warm personal connection with Rotterdam senior adviser Bilal Taner was recently clarified when he was extensively congratulated in an orthodox-religious manner on the Haksöz Haber website for the birth of his daughter. This website serves as a platform for radical Islamists, anti-Israeli and anti-American authors.The radical Turkish movement reject societies which are not based on the Koran.In the German-language American Jewish Committee 2006 report "Antisemitism - Made in Iran" (Antisemitismus - Made in Iran) it says: "The goals of Haksöz include uniting Muslims in the battle against Israel and the United States".The orthodox-religious congratulations to 'our brother in Rotterdam' is signed by prominent members of the Turkish Hasöz Haber movement. Several of the congratulations to the Rotterdam policy official come from important activists who were passengers on the Mavi Marmaris, one of the ship in the flotilla which recently tried to break through the Gaza blockade. The attempt ended in a bloody encounter with the Israeli navy where several people were killed. The dead activists are honored as martyrs by Haksöz.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Obama team uses flimflammery to inflate job numbers.Are you a financial adviser? You may not know it, but you've got a green job. Are you a wholesale buyer? You've got a green job, too. Or maybe you're a newspaper reporter. You, too, have a green job -- at least according to the Obama administration.For months, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley has been pushing the administration to substantiate its claims of having created nearly 200,000 green jobs. More fundamentally, Grassley has asked Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to state clearly what a green job is. So far, he hasn't gotten an answer.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:AmericanThinker.'DREAM Act' Threat Remains.Senator Harry Reid launched a sneak attack by adding the "DREAM Act" to the Defense Authorization Bill. Although the Defense Bill was temporarily sidelined Tuesday, most expect it to be revived at a later date. The Act will allow students who have lived in America for five years to obtain a green card after they attend college or serve in the military. This is nothing more than an amnesty program that gives citizenship to these illegal immigrants. The "DREAM Act" is sending the wrong signal that the way you become an American is to break the law. Congressman Bilbray is frustrated and upset and wants to make it clear that "Harry [Reid] is desperate and is in a tight election. However, there should be some issues more important than politics."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

'Great flotilla' group mounts anti-Israeli campaign.Organizers of next Gaza aid sail mount display featuring Israeli premier clutching bloody knife, skeleton of Israeli soldier with Palestinian children coming out of its mouth in efforts to rally support for journey. Foreign Ministry: Campaign heinous.The future flotilla is expected to reach the area in early October, carrying hundreds of anti-Israeli activist from Europe. Organizers launched the media campaign in London, last week.Displays including skulls embedded with the Star of David and Palestinian flags are expected to be shown throughout the journey.Organizers claim the flotilla will include 12 vessels carrying 5,000 activists, but Israel says only a few hundreds are expected to actually arrive."Just as the Marmara terror ship was not carrying so much as one ounce of humanitarian aid for Gazans... this sail and others like it aim to breach a hypothetical blockade and ease 'mass hunger' which is nothing more than the figment of an anti-Israeli campaign." Gaza, he concluded, "Longs not for the end of an Israeli occupation, but for the end of Hamas occupation, which has plunged it into great darkness." Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Stephen Colbert Testifies in Congress, in Character.Stephen Colbert testified in a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on immigrant farm workers this morning (video here, not embeddable). The hearing got off to an awkward start when Democratic Rep. John Conyers asked the comedian to leave the hearing. Colbert responded, seemingly concerned, that he had only agreed to testify at the request of subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, who then asked him to stay.A sampling of his satiric offerings:-"I don't want a tomato picked by a Mexican. I want it picked by an American, sliced by a Guatemalan, and served by a Venezuelan, in a spa, where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian.-"I'm not a fan of the government doing anything. But I've got to ask, why isn't the government doing anything? ... Like most members of Congress, I haven't read the bill."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Ground Zero Imam Ordered To Pay Union City.Rauf was ordered to pay $12,960 to city authorities who were fired up after having to front the ten days worth of pay earned by the officer keeping fire watch while the imam made repairs ranging from faulty fire alarms to moldy bathrooms and bedbugs.Over 200 health and fire code violations were found in the building, and Rauf has until Oct. 9 to fix them. Union City is suing the religious leader for ignoring some 30 tenant complaints from 1996 to 2010.Rauf’s lawyer said the complaints were all addressed in 2007 and that the suit is a political move in retaliation to his client’s hotly-contested plans to build a mosque in New York City’s financial district.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:GatewayPundit.Vatican Official: “Islam Will Sooner Or Later Conquer Majority of Europe”.Europe will grow more “Islamicized” if Christian Europeans do not start having more children, and going back to Church, a senior Vatican official said this month. Msgr. Piero Gheddo, a famous missionary and an official with the Vatican’s Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, told Zenit news service that Europe’s indigenous inhabitants have abandoned Christianity and are becoming “paganized.”“The fact is that, as a people, we are becoming ever more pagan and the religious vacuum is inevitably filled by other proposals and religious forces,” said Msgr. Gheddo, who founded AsiaNews, the Christian missionary news service. As religious practice diminishes in Christian Europe, “indifference spreads; Christianity and the Church are attacked.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:The Volokh Conspiracy.Speech Hostile to Gays Constitutionally Unprotected, Speech Hostile to Whites Constitutionally Protected?Perhaps Republican Party v. White, which applies to judicial candidate speech the highly speech-protective “strict scrutiny” test is the right test for speech by sitting judges. Perhaps Pickering v. Board of Education, which applies to government employees a much less speech-protective balancing test is the right test for speech by sitting judges. But I saw no explanation from Justice Graves, or from the opinions he joined, of why Pickering should have been applied as to the hostile-to-gays speech in Wilkerson but not to the hostile-to-whites speech in Osborne.As I mentioned, perhaps there is a good explanation for Justice Graves’ conclusions in these cases. But it would be good, I think, if the Senators asked Justice Graves what that explanation might be.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Catholic school 'could be run by mosque'.A Roman Catholic primary school faces being taken over by a mosque following a sharp rise in the number of Muslim children.Sacred Heart primary in Blackburn could become the first Catholic school in Britain to be converted into an Islamic faith school following a dramatic change in the pupil population.More than nine-in-10 of the school's pupils were Catholic a decade ago but that number plummeted to just three per cent this year.The local diocese admitted the school – which must have a Catholic head teacher and devote 10 per cent of the timetable to Christian-based religious education – was no longer “serving the needs” of the community.Under current legislation, the local council must effectively run a competition to find a new organisation to run the school.Blackburn’s Masjid-e-Tauheedul Islam mosque, which already runs a girls’ secondary school in the town, is among a series of organisations expressing an interest.Hamid Patel, principal of the Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School, told the Times Educational Supplement: “Given that most of the pupils are Muslim it makes sense for us to engage with the school.“We will need more information on the expectations of the local authority, but if the community and the school want us to be involved, then, yes, we are interested.”The disclosure comes amid rising demand for Islamic state schools.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:AstuteBloggers.Libs claim anti - Muslim discrimination is up - But it's creeping Sharia in legal garb.In 2009, workplace discrimination against Muslims rose 20 percent to a record 803 claims, according to federal data cited in the New York Times.We sat down with the author of the article, Times labor and workplace reporter Steven Greenhouse, along with Arsalan Iftikhar, an Muslim- American international human rights lawyer and founder of themuslimguy.com, to discuss why these numbers have increased and what could be the cause.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Larry Elder: Australian Muslim cleric calls for a beheading. Who cares?What happens when an Australian(!) Muslim cleric calls for the beheading of a Dutch politician?Not much.What happens when an American pastor no one ever heard of threatens to burn a Koran?It ignites an international outcry.Bottom line: Barbarity in the name of Islam is not even remotely condemned to the degree that the West condemns insensitivity by cartoonists, politicians and anti-Islam clerics.Why? A denunciation of Muslim practices suggests a superiority of American values and culture. The left finds the very notion objectionable.Conclusion : It is a bizarre and dangerous double standard that allows a Pastor Jones to become more notorious than a Feiz Muhammad.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Pakistan's Supreme Court, Government On Collision Course.Conspiracy is a frequently uttered word in Islamabad these days, with the Pakistani capital awash in talk of a return to military rule and every political move being interpreted as a power grab.In recent days, senior members of the governing coalition have been talking about a "judicial coup," in which the country's courts would oust politicians and form power by judicial processes, paving the way for an eventual military takeover. Friction between the Supreme Court and the civilian government is high in the wake of the court's directive to reopen corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari in Switzerland. Given a deadline of September 24 to reply, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani dutifully refused to obey it.Gilani signed a government document presented to the Supreme Court on September 24 that reiterates the president's immunity from prosecution while in office and that, as supreme commander of the armed forces, he cannot be subjected to court proceedings in a foreign country. The document was leaked to the press, despite the government's request that it be kept secret, adding to the discord between the two bodies.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Soldier who served in Afghanistan refused council house 'for not being local while he was overseas'.But Afghan family given a £1.2m house by their local authority.A father-of-two who served in Afghanistan has been denied a council house because he has not been living in his local area while serving in the forces.Lance Corporal Craig Baker, 26, completed two tours of duty in the war-stricken region before he decided to leave the Army to spend more time with his sons.But the former soldier, who grew up in Bracknell, Berkshire, has been denied a council property for his family because he 'does not have a local connection'. It is in sharp contrast to an Afghan family who were given a £1.2 million seven-bedroom house by their local authority just 30 miles away in 2008.And he accused the local authority of discriminating against him because of his service background.Simon Hendey, chief officer of housing for Bracknell Forest Council, denied that Craig Baker was discriminated against because he was a soldier.Hmmmm....option go back to Afghanistan trow away British passport and come back as a refugee,housing insured?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Mexican Journalists Flee Drug War, Seek U.S. Asylum.Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced a series of measures this week designed to safeguard the work of journalists who cover the violent cartel war in that country.Mexico's drug war, which has claimed more than 28,000 lives, has become one of the most dangerous stories in the world. Some journalists have taken the ultimate step: They have fled to the United States to seek political asylum.It is the moment that thousands of Mexican citizens who have fled to the United States wait for, but very few get to savor: the celebration when they learn the U.S. government has granted them political asylum.Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco, a TV cameraman from Torreon who was kidnapped in July by suspected cartel thugs for reporting on corrupt prison authorities, says he hopes the asylum granted to Aguirre "opens the door for people like me.""I can't return to Mexico," he says, "either the cartels or the police will get me."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Los Angeles Judge Rules Lindsay Lohan Must Return to Jail After Failed Drug Test!Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan was ordered back to jail following a public confession to a failed court-mandated drug test.Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox made the decision to deny bail for Lohan Friday, following days of speculation about her fate. Fox issued a warrant for Lohan’s arrest earlier this week, compelling her to appear in court Friday morning.Looking somber and wearing black and white clothing, Lohan arrived on time for the Friday morning hearing. While cameras were not allowed inside the hearing, media lined the outside of the courtroom awaiting the news.She was later taken outside in handcuffs. A second hearing was scheduled for October 22.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

'Jewish dancer' rocks West Bank.Mysterious belly dancer from Israel turns into Palestinian wedding sensation; earns NIS 1,600 per 15 minutes of dancing.The woman of mystery has become the talk of the town among Palestinians, after appearing in many wedding celebrations and leaving the crowd flabbergasted.Recently, the woman, dubbed "the Jewish dancer" appeared in a wedding at Bethlehem. Guests who saw her perform said she quickly turned into the highlight of the night, and came up in almost every conversation during the event.The wedding sensation, whose name and other identifying details remain unknown, reportedly charges an astronomic amount of NIS 1,600 (about $425) for every 15 minutes of performance.To watch the dance or not to watch the dance?This is the question.Not her nationality.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

British monarch 'asked for heating handout' from fund for the poor!Queen Elizabeth II asked the British government for money from a fund for poor people to help pay heating bills on her palaces, a newspaper reported on Friday.Aides said the 15-million-pound state grant the queen received for the upkeep of the palaces was inadequate and asked if the royal family was eligible for special funds to replace four combined heat and power units at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.The money would come from a government scheme to fund heating programmes that benefit people on low incomes.According to the Independent, the then Labour government initially agreed to the idea but then changed its mind.An official wrote to the palace pointing out the fund's intended purpose, adding: "I also feel a bit uneasy about the probable adverse press coverage if the palace were given a grant at the expense of, say, a hospital."Buckingham Palace refused to comment on the report.Hmmm....perhaps sell a few things to pay the bills?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:WeaselZippers.Last Friday’s News: Obama’s Latest Group of US Science Envoys to the Muslim World.So while Obama continues to turn us into a third world country w/ today’s installment of rationed socialized healthcare, last Friday, START-Star Senator Lugar announced the installation of 3 new US Science Envoys to the Muslim World. NOT ONCE does the world “muslim” appear in his press release.We get it from Science Mag, (not the msm, as usual).This is the second set of science envoys. A previous set was sent to Muslim-majority countries during the first half of the year. There may be more we don’t know about ..So much for Obama’s disavowal to hand over NASA this past summer.. sounds like utter BS at this point.Meanwhile unemployment just went up again the USA?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Rightist MKs slam Obama remarks at UN.President's call for extension of settlement freeze 'inappropriate interference,' rightist Knesset members say. Rightist Knesset members slammed American President Barack Obama Thursday over his remarks during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.Responding to the president's call for an extension of the West Bank settlement freeze, Likud MK Danny Danon said "Obama is invited to turn on CNN Sunday and watch the bulldozers resuming construction in Eretz Yisrael." "A person who presents the freeze as a condition for peace is completely detached (from reality,) and will apparently not get to be a partner for peace in the Middle East," he said. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:DanielGreenfield.Mohammed's Ghost and the Incompatibility of Islam and the West.A clash of civilizations is at the heart of it a clash of allegiances, for a civilization is defined by its pattern of allegiances. Therefore the clash between Islam and the West, is also the clash between what we give allegiance to and what they give allegiance to. It is also one of the best demonstrations of why Islam is incompatible with Western democracies.Given enough centuries of residence, the problem might resolve itself. If Islam did not insist on conquering infidels by the sword, but merely on separatism, the problem would be mainly a social one. If Muslims were not swiftly moving from minorities to majorities across Europe, there might still be time. Unfortunately there is very little time left before Europe becomes Eurabia, and much of the rest of the world will follow. The toxic combination of Saudi wealth, a booming birth rate, a decaying West and the industrialized secularism of the First World colliding with the fanatical determinism of the Muslim world, leaves only two ways for this clash of civilizations to end.One idea, one way of life must win. The other must lose. The great question being decided now in our words and deeds, is which will stand and which will fall.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Video:Donald Trump shares his doubts about whether President Obama can win a re-election in 2012.Trump on Obama: ‘I Don’t Think He’s Ever Going to Recover’.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:AtlasShrugs.OIC Subversive Supremacist World Summit in Chicago: Installing the Universal Caliphate.There is, from the 28th to the 30th of this month, a conference being held by the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the American Islamic College on "Islam and Muslims in America" in Chicago. It is a summit of Islamic supremacists at the highest levels of national and international power. Notice how all of these Islamic organizations and groups all share the same goal, worldwide. This conference appears to be the penultimate chapter, a decidedly evil moment, in American history.The fox is in the hen-house. Here we see, up close, just how deeply the US government has been infiltrated by the stealth jihadists. The panel discussions give us a true picture of their agenda -- The Role of the OIC & The scope for its relations with American Muslims, American Foreign Policy & The Muslim World, and Islam in the American Context.Unindicted co-conspirators, Hamas-linked, Muslim Brotherhood fronts like CAIR and ISNA pow wow with Muslim Congressmen and with people at senior levels of the White House, the State Department and the largest Islamic supremacist body in the world, the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference).Look what i got about "Ufuk Gocken",Turkey Honorary Consul General Mr. Ufuk GOKCEN.Oct 2007 - "CORDOBA speech"Conference on intolerance and discrimination against Muslims.Weird how they like the use of CORDOBA?Is this weird or what?Hmmm ....Turkey - Iran.....Blame the Jews??Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

9/11 Memorial Lights Trap Thousands of Birds.On the evening of the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the twin columns of light projected as a memorial over the World Trade Center site became a source of mystery.Illuminated in the beams were thousands of small white objects, sparkling and spiraling, unlike anything seen on other nights. Some viewers wondered if they were scraps of paper or plastic caught in updrafts from the spotlights’ heat. From beneath, it was at times like gazing into a snowstorm. It was hard not to think of souls.Those unidentified objects have now been identified as birds, pulled from their migratory path and bedazzled by the light in a perfect, poignant storm of avian disorientation.“It’s only happened once before. It’s a confluence of circumstances that come together to cause this,” said John Rowden, citizen science director at the Audubon Society’s New York City chapter. “Some of it has to do with meteorological conditions, and some with the phase of the moon.”New York City sits in the middle of a major migration corridor, used for millennia by birds flying south for the winter. During autumn nights, thousands of birds pass directly above the megalopolis, a passage generally unnoticed by its human inhabitants.Gives a whole new meaning to "Holy Ground".Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Iran: Journalist sentenced to six years over Ayatollah Montazeri interview.Emadeddin Baqi, 48, was indicted for a video broadcast on a BBC program in Farsi. He is charged with propaganda against the establishment and undermining national security. Since 2000, he has been in jail at least 67 times. In 2009 he won a prize for campaigning for human rights in Iran.Since 2000 he has ended up in jail at least 67 times and suffers from serious heart and kidney diseases, exacerbated because of prison. Last year in Madrid Baqi was awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, for his campaign for human rights in Iran.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:GatewayPundit.Radical American Islamist: “We Will Build Our Victory Mosque – On Top Of Your Grave”.Here’s a tip: If you’re going to write a threatening email about a victory mosque on top of the bones of dead Americans don’t use your hotmail account and a university computer.Stop the 911 Mosque received this email today.We received an email today about the Ground Zero mosque stating, “we will build our Victory Mosque … We will even build it on top of your grave!” The IP for the sender indicates they accessed their email account via a computer at the University of Washington.Here is the email:Message:My name is Malik Bawwab and I am an Arab Muslim! And we will build our Victory Mosque wherever we want to build it! And there is nothing any of you damn infidels can do about it! We will even build it on top of your grave! You can cry all you want and complain like little babies, but WE OWN YOU!!! And all my Arab brothers and sisters spit on your grave!!!Well at least we can all now agree on one thing: it IS a Victory Mosque.Well, all of us except Obama and Bloomberg.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Why Does the US Need a Consumer Czar?Elizabeth Warren to be appointed White House 'consumer czar' ... The White House will announce Friday that Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren will be appointed to be an assistant to the president and oversee the creation of a new consumer financial protection bureau. The move is largely seen as a compromise to avoid a potentially bruising Senate confirmation battle over Warren, who was the first to call for the creation of such a bureau. The government, via a private banking cartel, created a terrible recession that cost millions their homes and savings. Those elites that sit behind government then decided this same suffering population needed "protection" from the ravages its central banking economy caused. Accordingly, private agreements were redefined as products and the promotion began. Gogol anyone?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:GatewayPundit.Sec. of Education Duncan Pledges to Turn Kids Into ‘Good Environmental Citizens’.Obama’s Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, pledged to turn America’s school children into good enviro zombies at an appearance at a Virginia high school earlier in the month and he intends to use federal funds to do it.Duncan says that this enviro indoctrination effort, the “Blueprint for Reform,” will be funded by $265 million allocated by Obama for his 2011 budget.“The president has proposed $265 million for this program in his fiscal 2011 budget,” said Duncan. “These grants will support subjects such as the arts, foreign languages, history, and civics–all of which receive funding under current Education Department programs. Because we recognize the importance education plays in the sustainability movement, these grants also will support environmental education.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

UAE is member of IAEA Board of Governors.The UAE was on Thursday chosen a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the highest authority for decision-making by proxy. It includes 35 countries from the Middle East and South Asia group.Permanent Representative of the UAE to the IAEA Hamad Ali Al Ka'abi, described the selection of the UAE to the Board of Governors of IAEA, which includes Jordan, as a significant step and a great opportunity to play a role in the decision-making in this important global forum to support the Agency in achieving its goals, strengthen its role in working on nuclear non-proliferation and international expansion in the field of clean energy use and the peaceful use of atomic energy.Something tells me things wont improve for Israel.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Jordan's king warns of war by year's end.In Daily Show interview, Abdullah says if issue of settlement construction freeze is not resolved, violent conflict could break out by end of 2010. He also criticizes Iranian involvement, saying Palestinian issue 'hijacked by non-Arab elements'. Several hours after describing what Israel and the Palestinians are expected to gain from peace in his UN General Assembly address, Jordan's King Abdullah warned Thursday night that if the settlement construction freeze issue would not be solved, a violent conflict could break out by the end of 2010."Ifwe don't get past the 30th, which shows sincerity that the Israelis and Palestinians are going to move forward," expect a war by the end of the year, the Jordanian king told Jon Stewart on the Daily Show.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:WeaselZippers. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va) Warns Holder Not to Interfere w/Coates’ Commission on Civil Rights Testimony.(PJM) In an exclusive obtained by Pajamas Media.com, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) has warned Attorney General Eric Holder not to interfere with the decision of Christopher Coates to testify before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights tomorrow, citing the federal “1912 Anti-Gag Legislation and Whistleblower Protection Laws for Federal Employees.Will this become a new "Watergate'?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

The Gathering Storm.The parallels with early perestroika are there, to be sure. But that is no guarantee that the script will play out as it did in the 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, it probably won't. History, to paraphrase Mark Twain, doesn't always repeat itself. But it often rhymes.In an article this week for Politkom.ru, Tatyana Stanovaya, director of the Center for Political Technology, makes a compelling argument that the struggle over whether or not to remove Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov is presenting Russia's ruling tandem of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev with their most serious political test to date.A key component of Stanovaya's argument is that the very nature of conflict within the elite has changed over the past couple years.Clan warfare, of course, has always been present in Putin's power vertical. There was the battle between Rosneft and Gazprom for Yukos' assets in the middle of the past decade, there was the vicious "siloviki war" in late 2007, and there was the rivalry between the pro-Kremlin parties United Russia and A Just Russia.But, as Stanovaya notes, those conflicts were contained because "the political regime was built on a 'vertical' and operated according to strict rules of the game for the main players," all of whom - like under Leonid Brezhnev's "stability of cadres" approach -- were accorded a degree of protection.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Liam Fox warns of electromagnetic disruptions due to solar flares.Defence Secretary Liam Fox has highlighted the fear that once-in-a-century phenomenon of a large solar flare could cause electromagnetic disruptions which could paralyse the earth.Earlier this year, NASA scientists had warned that large solar flares could be caused by a peak in the sun's energy cycle in 2012 or 2013, which would be powerful enough to leave many countries, including the UK, without crucial communication signals.The electromagnetic disruptions could widespread power blackouts around the world by crippling electrical equipment as well as satellites that are orbiting our planet.Speaking to Channel 4 News, former US government advisor Avi Schnurr, warned that a major solar flare could cause a permanent blackout through out the world.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Netanyahu: UN report on Gaza flotilla raid is biased and distorted.Earlier on Thursday, Turkish president said Turkey still waiting for apology and monetary compensation from Israel over flotilla raid.The United Nations report on the Gaza flotilla raid is biased and distorted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, adding that the group responsible for the report was "obsessed with targeting Israel." I agree completely it's more like "Just blame the Jooows"!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Moscow mayor may resign Monday - paper.Luzhkov, who turned 74 on Tuesday, left for Austria on vacation on Sunday amid a media campaign against him and his billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina.Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, who has recently come under attack by Russia's state-run media, may sign his resignation letter on Monday on his return from vacation, a Russian business daily said on Friday.Luzhkov, who turned 74 on Tuesday, left for Austria on vacation on Sunday amid a media campaign against him and his billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina.National TV channels accuse Luzhkov of corruption and indifference to the plight of Moscow during the summer smog. Earlier this month, a documentary aired by the NTV TV channel said Luzhkov's wife Yelena Baturina, the world's third richest woman, had used her husband's position to amass her alleged $2.9 billion wealth.The Kommersant paper quoted sources close to Moscow City Hall as saying that Luzhkov may sign his resignation letter at the beginning of next week, possibly Monday.Well it's not like he needs the job anyway?Read the full story here more on this story here.Click here for comments.

New discoveries hint at 5,500 year old fratricide at Hamoukar, Syria.Five years ago, archaeologists found the “earliest evidence for large scale organized warfare in the Mesopotamian world.” Using slings and clay bullets a – likely Uruk – army took over the city of Hamoukar, burning it down in the process. Now, new discoveries at a nearby settlement shed more light on the 3500 BC battle – and raise more questions. If the invading army was from Uruk, did they kill their own people? If so, why?Researchers believe that this colony was there to facilitate trade, but was probably not controlled by Uruk’s rulers. “I’m tending more to them being sub-state entities,” said Reichel, private entrepreneurs, perhaps like the British East India Company of more recent colonial times. In 3500 BC Hamoukar was destroyed by a violent attack. Slings and clay bullets were the force’s primary weapons. While incredibly crude, by today’s standards, these weapons could do a lot of damage. The archaeologists tested the slings' effectiveness by creating their own bullets and attacking their own dig house.“The impact is quite remarkable,” said Reichel. At one point he was accidentally hit in the head by a colleague who was practising. “He wasn’t very good at that point, but by god I felt it,” he said. “Once he got really good, the speed, the velocity, that those guys get, is amazing... I’m virtually certain it can be fatal.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

9/11 Memorial Lights Trap Thousands of Birds.On the evening of the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the twin columns of light projected as a memorial over the World Trade Center site became a source of mystery.Illuminated in the beams were thousands of small white objects, sparkling and spiraling, unlike anything seen on other nights. Some viewers wondered if they were scraps of paper or plastic caught in updrafts from the spotlights’ heat. From beneath, it was at times like gazing into a snowstorm. It was hard not to think of souls.Those unidentified objects have now been identified as birds, pulled from their migratory path and bedazzled by the light in a perfect, poignant storm of avian disorientation.“It’s only happened once before. It’s a confluence of circumstances that come together to cause this,” said John Rowden, citizen science director at the Audubon Society’s New York City chapter. “Some of it has to do with meteorological conditions, and some with the phase of the moon.”New York City sits in the middle of a major migration corridor, used for millennia by birds flying south for the winter. During autumn nights, thousands of birds pass directly above the megalopolis, a passage generally unnoticed by its human inhabitants.Gives a whole new meaning to "Holy Ground".Read the full story here and more about this amazing story here.

Putin plays down talk of battle for Arctic resources.Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has rejected talk of an impending battle for control of the Arctic region's mineral resources.He told an international conference in Moscow he was confident the region's resources could be exploited in a spirit of partnership. Russia believes the UN will recognise its claim to much of the Arctic seabed.Russia, Norway, Canada, Denmark and the US have all laid claims to territory in the region."One comes across all sorts of fantastical predictions about a coming battle for the Arctic," Mr Putin told the International Arctic Forum on its closing day."We can see clearly that most of these frightening scenarios in the Arctic have no real foundation.Hmmmmm permit me to doubt it,especially with such a US President.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Army veteran accused of threatening Obama.An Army veteran arrested after a seven-hour standoff was charged on Wednesday with threatening to kill US President Barack Obama as part of what authorities said was his plan to ignite a war between Muslims and Christians and “start an apocalypse.”Conaway was in custody and was scheduled to appear in federal court later on Thursday on one count apiece of making a threat against the president and making false threats to detonate an explosive device. Bond was not immediately set.From the authorities their description it sounds like they arrested "Rambo"?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Leading Libyan imam exposed himself to 12-year-old girl in Bristol park.A Libyan imam has been jailed in Britain after indecently exposing himself twice in a park - including to a 12-year-old girl.Abrahim Ghait, who was invited to Britain to celebrate Ramadan, exposed himself to a 28-year-old woman as she made her way home from the gym. Three days later he repeated the offence in front of a 12-year-old girl - telling her his genitalia was named 'Lexie'. Ghait is famous in the Muslim world for memorising the Koran by the age of 17.Yesterday he pleaded guilty to two charges under the Sexual Offences Act of exposing his genitals with the intention that someone would see them and be caused alarm or distress.Magistrates jailed him for six weeks on each charge, to serve side-by-side, and placed him on the Sex Offenders' Register for seven years.Mohamed El Haddad, head of the UK Arabic Society said: 'There is no way he would have done something like this. Do you think a church leader would harm its community? 'It was in a park, in the middle of the town, in the middle of the day.'It was Ramadan when he was fasting and he is not supposed to even look at women.'He is a world-famous imam of a mosque in Libya and has spent 15 years learning the Koran. It is destroying the future of a key person. It is crazy and I just can't believe it.Yeah next it's going to be it's a lie or a Zionist plot?Well now he's world known for something completely different!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Stuxnet worm 'targeted high-value Iranian assets'.One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever detected was probably targeting "high value" infrastructure in Iran, experts have told the BBC.Stuxnet's complexity suggests it could only have been written by a "nation state", some researchers have claimed.It is believed to be the first-known worm designed to target real-world infrastructure such as power stations, water plants and industrial units.It was first detected in June and has been intensely studied ever since."The fact that we see so many more infections in Iran than anywhere else in the world makes us think this threat was targeted at Iran and that there was something in Iran that was of very, very high value to whomever wrote it," Liam O'Murchu of security firm Symantec, who has tracked the worm since it was first detected, told BBC News.Some have speculated that it could have been aimed at disrupting Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant or the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz.However, Mr O'Murchu and others, such as security expert Bruce Schneier, have said that there was currently not enough evidence to draw conclusions about what its intended target was or who had written it.India and Indonesia have also seen relatively high infection rates, according to Symantec.Hmmm....where there any infections in China?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Jobless Claims in U.S. Increased 12,000 to 465,000 Last Week.We're heading in the right direction Mr President?The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended and emergency benefits under federal programs. Those who’ve used up their traditional benefits and are now collecting emergency and extended payments increased by about 208,000 to 5.17 million in the week ended Sept. 4. Read the full Fall recovery story here.Click here for comments.

A Claim of Pro-Islam Bias in Textbooks.Some conservative members of the Texas Board of Education assert that the history books used in this state have a pro-Islamic bias, and they are upset about it.Never shy about wading into the culture wars, they are planning to vote Friday for a resolution that would send a blunt message to textbook publishers: Do not present a pro-Islamic, anti-Christian version of history if you want to sell books in one of the nation’s largest markets.“The purpose of this resolution is to ensure there is balanced treatment of divergent groups,” Gail Lowe, the chairwoman of the board, said. “In the past, the textbooks have had some bias against Christianity.”“If you can control or influence our education system, you can start taking over the minds of the young people,” Mr. Rives said. “And so I think we are real passionate that you need to make a bold statement to the publishers that pushing this agenda will not be tolerated in Texas.”As evidence of Islamic influence in textbook publishing, Mr. Rives cited a 2008 decision by the Dubai royal family to invest heavily in a company that owns the publishing house Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Boston.The resolution asserts that textbook writers habitually call Christians “violent attackers” or “invaders” while playing down Muslim conquests in Europe as “migrations.” Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Obama announces Indonesia visit during United Nations speech."Many in this hall count themselves as friends of the Palestinians. But these pledges must now be supported by deeds," Obama said. "Those who have signed on to the Arab Peace Initiative should seize this opportunity to make it real by taking tangible steps toward the normalization that it promises Israel. Those who speak out for Palestinian self-government should help the Palestinian Authority politically and financially, and - in so doing - help the Palestinians build the institutions of their state. And those who long to see an independent Palestine rise must stop trying to tear Israel down."Obama also announced that he will add Indonesia, a country to which he has twice cancelled visits, to his Asia trip this November, which will also include stops in India, South Korea, and Japan. Obama meets with leaders from all 10 ASEAN member countries later Thursday.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:Pajamasmedia.Bombshell: Defying DOJ Instructions, Christopher Coates Will Testify Friday on New Black Panther Case.Told by the Department of Justice to ignore a subpoena from the Civil Rights Commission, former Voting Section Chief Coates has instead chosen to comply. His testimony Friday morning is likely to be incredibly damaging to DOJ leadership and the Obama administration. Adams testified that Fernandes, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division in charge of voting matters, told Voting Section leadership that the Obama administration would not file election-related cases against minority defendants — no matter the alleged violation of law.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:NewsRealBlog.Why We Need Islamophobia.An August 19th article by Daniel Luban in the Jewish publication Tablet calls fear of Islam “the new anti-Semitism.” Luban says that,“Many of the tropes of classic anti-Semitism have been revived and given new force on the American right. Once again jingoistic politicians and commentators posit a religious conspiracy breeding within Western society, pledging allegiance to an alien power, conspiring with allies at the highest levels of government to overturn the existing order."This is an admirable attempt at tolerance and pluralism, the key values that make America America. But it overlooks some overwhelming realities. And those oversights may someday threaten America’s very existence.The Jewish threat was never real. There are roughly thirteen million Jews on the planet today, far less than the population of just one of Islam’s roughly 200 major cities–Cairo. But there are more Moslems on the planet than all of the world’s Americans and Europeans combined. In fact, there are nearly three times as many Moslems as Europeans and Americans. Think of that. Nearly three times as many.Not to mention the fact that there are 123 Moslems for every Jew.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Chinese Labor Camps :MEPs condemn imports of 'blood spattered' Chinese goods.The EU has been accused of importing 'blood spattered' goods made in Chinese labour camps.The claim was made by German centre-right MEP Daniel Caspary during a debate on 23 September 2010 on products made in so-called Laogai camps.There are believed to be around 500 forced labour camps in China, many of which are commercial organisations with commercial company names.The camps allow police to send mainly petty criminals to jail for up to four years.US authorities have already banned products known to be made in the camps, and MEPs called for similar legislation to be introduced in the EU.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

The Senkaku-Diaoyu conflict and the end of U.S. supremacy on the seas.A disproportionate reaction from Beijing to Tokyo over a small vessel, silence over North Korea’s the act of war, in the sinking of the Cheonan. Beijing, with its missiles, is now capable of challenging U.S. aircraft carriers.It would take a salvo of three DF 21D to sink an aircraft carrier, such as the "George Washington", sent to protect Taiwan from a hypothetical Chinese invasion, this according to AP.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:Newsrealblog.George Soros’ 8 Most Despicable Acts (UPDATED AFTER THREAT BY SOROS’ LAWYERS).Editor’s Note: This post has been revised since it was first published. Because its author, Kathy Shaidle, is Canadian she is not protected by the same first amendment and libel laws that Americans are. Thus despite the fact that the information she presented has floated around the American blogosphere for years and was published in David Horowitz and Richard Poe’s The Shadow Party, because of where she lives Soros’ goons were able to target her with legal threats. That is the nature of the totalitarian personality we’re dealing with here.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Militants Cut Both Feet off Actress Starring in Afghan Film Critical of Taliban.A Director’s Many Battles to Make Her Movie.LOS ANGELES — Sonia Nassery Cole knew that shooting a movie on location in Afghanistan could get her killed. The most vivid reminder came a few weeks before filming, she said, when militants located her leading actress and cut off both of her feet.But Ms. Cole, an Afghan expatriate with a flair for the dramatic and a history of not taking no for an answer, had her mind made up. Unable to find another actress to take the part — the film is overtly critical of the Taliban — Ms. Cole, 45, decided to play the role herself.“Come hell, come shine, I was going to make this movie,” said Ms. Cole, a novice filmmaker whose primary job is running the Afghanistan World Foundation, a charity focused on refugees and women’s rights. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.HT:InfidelBloggers.

HT:AmericanThinker.ObamaCare: Will Someone Please Kill It Before It Kills Us?Will a Republican-controlled Congress repeal HR 3590 before it destroys U.S. health care and depresses the U.S. economy even further?As they say in the game of bridge, let's review the bidding. HR 3590 will: •Increase health care spending •Raise the national deficit •Put people out of work •Discourage hiring and entrepreneurial activity •Increase waiting times to receive care (no new providers) •Reduce services to Medicare patients, and •Discourage people from entering or staying in health care.ObamaCare is a rabid dog. Someone needs to kill it.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Stench from Ahmadinejad's food drives off hotel guests.The last time Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad graced New York with his presence, he told an interviewer for a local magazine that he was quite the cook. "I make all the dishes," he boasted, "the lamb, the rice, the yogurt." Sounds like quite the epicure. Ahmadinejad brought his personal cook along with him, possibly fearing—not unreasonably—that that he might otherwise be poisoned. But in the words of a hotel employee quoted in the New York Post, the meals he is being served "make the whole hotel stink like hell."The episode does seem to lend credence to the saying "You are what you eat."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

The truth about "separation of church and state".There seems to be a significant amount of confusion concerning our founding fathers, their religiosity, and the original intent of our First Amendment. Without question, the vast majority of our founders were indeed men of Christian faith and character. Let us first establish the fact that in our federal Constitution, there is no "separation of church and state," a battle cry of the Left. Those words are nowhere. The First Amendment simply states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…"When Missouri was applying for statehood, Constitution signer Rufus King pointed to the Bible in opposing slavery in the new state:"I hold that all laws or compacts imposing any such condition upon any human being are absolutely void because contrary to the law of nature, which is the law of God." Now, according to the separationists and the ACLU, this would be a no-no. But to a man who was actually present at the debates and the signing of the Constitution, it was perfectly reasonable and legitimate to use the Bible to guide policy and to make points politically.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

In Beirut,the Sunni-Shia crisis is getting worse!The international tribunal investigating the Hariri assassination might indict members of Hizbollah. The latter’s leader, Nasrallah, labels the tribunal an “Israeli project” and raises the issue of false charges. Lebanon’s prime minister plays down the row but demands “truth and Justice”. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria are working to avoid violence.For their own reasons, the Saudis, Syrians and Iranians have moved in to calm down the political and confessional storm. Iran does not want any trouble because President Ahmadinejad is expected on an official visit to Lebanon on 13 October. Syria and Saudi Arabia want peace and quiet because they sponsored last July’s political truce following a joint visit to Lebanon of Saudi King Abdallah and Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. For them, the survival of the Hariri government and respect for the media and political truce are crucial. Whilst it would not have the STL abolished, Saudi Arabia said that in exchange for an end to the row it would try to get the main charge in its present form changed.Thus, the focus is not on the STL itself but on what is happening around it. Hizbollah for instance has come up with evidence that would connect Israel to the Hariri assassination.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:InfidelBloggers.Maine: Muslim teen sets off chemical bomb near mosque --nothing to see here.Islamic leaders told police that the explosion was just a 13-year-old "experimenting." What was the kid trying to do? "Teenager responsible for chemical bomb near Islamic Society of Portland," by Helen Dailey for WCSH6.com.Just a young Muslim at a mosque experimenting with a bomb. In Maine. What's to be concerned about?Are the "Bombs"related to an zoning issue about a planned Mosque?Are we seeing here an distortion of facts?Read the full story here and here.Click here for comments.

What is a harvest moon, and why is this year's special?Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

Taqiyya: A Concept of Deceit that Security Professionals Must Know.Closely associated with shariah doctrine on lying is the concept of taqiyya, which is generally described as lying for the sake of Islam. National security professionals must understand taqiyya and its use as a major tool by Islamic terrorist organizations and the Muslim Brotherhood.Taqiyya is a concept in Islamic law that translates as “deceit or dissimulation,” particularly towards infidels. Taqiyya is based on Quran 3:28 and 16:106 as well as hadiths, tafsir literature, and judicial commentaries that permit and encourage precautionary dissimulation as a means for hiding true faith in times of persecution or deception when penetrating the enemy camp.Quran 3:28 teaches, “Let not the believers take the disbelievers as friends instead of the believers, and whoever does that, will never be helped by Allah in any way, unless you indeed fear a danger from them.”According to the authoritative Arabic text, Al-Taqiyya fi Al-Islam,“Taqiyya [deception] is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees with it and practices it. We can go so far as to say that the practice of taqiyya is mainstream in Islam, and that those few sects not practicing it diverge from the mainstream. . . . Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Six arrested in Gateshead over 'Koran burning'.Six people have been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after videos emerged on the internet apparently showing copies of the Koran being burned.Officers detained two men on September 15 and four more yesterday and all six were bailed pending further inquiries, Northumbria Police said.''The arrests followed the burning of what are believed to have been two Korans in Gateshead on September 11,'' the spokesman said.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Iranian prosecutors demand death penalty for 'blogfather'.Iranian prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for a writer known as the "blogfather" who was put on secret trial earlier this year, according to his family.Hossein Derakhshan, 35, who has both Iranian and Canadian nationality, won his nickname after developing a blog platform for Persian characters that was widely copied by online activists and commentators.While living in Canada and Britain he became known as a defender of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, against attacks from his many critics in the West. But he also went on a one-man peace mission to Israel, trying to show an Israeli perspective on conflicts in the Middle East to Iranians and also to "humanise" Iranians for his hosts. He was arrested within weeks of his voluntary return to Iran in 2008. His alleged offences include working with "hostile" governments, propaganda against the Islamic establishment, propaganda in favour of anti-revolutionary groups, and insulting religious sanctities. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Arctic summit in Moscow hears rival claims.An international meeting to try to prevent the Arctic becoming the next battleground over mineral wealth is taking place in Moscow.One quarter of the world's resources of oil and gas are believed to lie beneath the Arctic Ocean.Russia, Norway, Canada, Denmark and the United States have already laid claim to territory in the region.Although the summit is promoting dialogue, a Kremlin adviser said Russia would defend its national interests.The battle lines are drawn and a weak US President is not seen or heard off.Read the full story here.Click here for comments

Consolidation of power in the President is not Change we believe in or want.The Obama Administration is doing it! The President promised us “change” in Washington. It is happening with frightening changes to the structure of our government.Recall grade school civics lessons. Our government is a system of “checks and balances”. Our founding fathers created a system where Congress passes laws, the Executive Branch enforces them and creates policy, and the Supreme Court interprets them. All within the framework of the Constitution, which is the rule book in this system.So, here is a summary of the changes of the past two years, and the migration of power which is occurring.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:BigPeace.Russia Sells Syria High Tech Missiles.In yet another sign that the Russians are looking to stir the pot in the Middle East, they’ve decided to sell P-800 Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria. The sale is worth at least $300 million and will have the Russians delivering around 72 cruise missiles to the Syrians.The Yakhont is an advanced supersonic, long range, anti-ship missile that features its own high tech inertial navigation system to reach the target area. The Yakhont can be used at extremely low altitudes and is able to fly between 5 and 15 meters like a sea-skimming missile. Aside from reducing its radar footprint, the low altitude mode increases the element of surprise and minimizes reaction time against the incoming missile. Of course, it can also be used against land-based targets.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:AmericanThinker.The Islamintern Is Coming to (Chi-) Town.President Obama's adopted home town will host an event next week that epitomizes Sharia encroachment: the global Islamintern is coming to Chi-town.John Laffin, the late (d. 2000) military historian, and prolific writer on Islam, warned already in 1988 that the Jedda-based OIC, under Saudi Arabia's patronage, was persuading Muslim nations to jettison even their inchoate adoption of "Western models and codes," and revert to pre-colonial era (pre-Western) retrograde systems of Sharia, or Islamic Law.The Saudis proffered sizable loans and grants from their institutions in return for the more extensive application of Sharia in these targeted OIC countries. Laffin also noted the unprecedented Saudi distribution of media and print materials which extended to non-Muslim countries, including tens of millions of Korans, translated into many languages for the hundreds of millions of Muslims (and non-Muslims) who did not read Arabic. He concluded at that time.Propaganda is carried on from Riyadh on a scale comparable to Moscow's effort to spread Communism.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

President Barack Obama is to make a plea at the United Nations on Thursday for international support for the Middle East peace process, urging world leaders to make sure "this time is different" from previous failed efforts.In excerpts of his address to the U.N. General Assembly released by the White House, Obama will specifically urge nations that have pledged support for the Palestinians to meet their obligations for both political and financial support and "must stop trying to tear Israel down.""Many in this hall count themselves as friends of the Palestinians. But these pledges must now be supported by deeds," he will say, according to excerpts of the speech. Obama is scheduled to speak at 10 a.m. EDT/1400 GMT.How about Many call themselves friends of Israel MR President?Or is it an Muslim only gathering?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:NewsrealBlog.Islam Meets Catholicism as Muslim Protesters Call for Death of Pope Benedict.Hmmmm...."Interfaith dialog?"Though the Crusades were fought centuries ago and are rarely, if ever, mentioned in Catholic classrooms, Muslims today who want Jihad continue to flaunt them in vengeful tones and wallow in hatred for Catholicism. So it was when Pope Benedict XVI visited the United Kingdom and was met on his itinerary by a group of angry Islamists urging for his death and calling him “responsible” for the Crusades.Muslim demonstrators shouted “Pope Benedict, you will pay, Islam is on its way”, “Sharia is on its way”, “Justice is on its way” (a lot is coming our way, it seems) and threatened that Sharia would be “declared” against all who insult Muhammad. They shouted to the Pope, “Watch your back,” swore that he will “burn in hell” and claimed that he “deserves the death penalty.”Read and see the full story hereand more here.Click here for comments.

HT:Rightwingnews.Shorter Bob Woodward: Obama Is Guided By Politics In Afghanistan, Doesn’t Listen To Generals, & Doesn’t Care About Winning.Libs should be flattered that conservatives are so ferocious these days. After all, we're just imitating what they did in the Bush years.When it came out that Bob Woodward was doing an Obama book, there was one thing people wondered about: Would he let people know what was really going on or sugarcoat everything to protect Obama? Judging by the Woodward story that's circulating today, it looks like Woodward decided it would be more fun to show the world the messiah's feet of clay than to build yet another statue in his honor.Here's the Obama quote from the story that seems to be catching everyone's eye:We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever we absorbed it and we are stronger.But there's much more,the one quote that caught my attention is this one:"Even David Petraeus is quoted in the article as saying, "You have to recognize also that I don't think you win this war. I think you keep fighting."I believe this is the bottomline and the truth!If Obama isn't giving our troops what they need to win and neither he nor the general in charge of the war thinks it's winnable, then why are we there? There are soldiers fighting and dying to win a war in Afghanistan and the war is apparently being run by people with the same mopey, half-@ssed mentality that created such a disaster in Vietnam. Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:TheDailyBeast.My Dinner With Ahmadinejad.Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played the host at an exclusive dinner in New York that left some of his guests frustrated. Stephen Kinzer got the invitation, and reports.America's favorite villain, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, turned a New York hotel into an annex of his dream palace last night. And by the time the party broke up, he seemed almost as deeply lost in surreal fantasies as his would-be destroyers in the White House.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Unrest plagues Indian-administered Kashmir.United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for an immediate end to violence in Indian-administered Kashmir.More than 100 people have died in a summer of unrest.The region has been divided and disputed between India and Pakistan for more than 60 years.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Two of Obama's closest advisers among those likely to leave in White House shuffle.In his nearly two years in office, President Obama has relied on a very small clique of advisers that serves as his most trusted sounding board on politics and policy.Members of his staff describe Obama as wary of outsiders and reluctant to widen his inner circle. As one of his advisers bluntly put it, the president "doesn't like new people."Like it or not, he will soon be surrounded by them as an expected staff shuffle will deprive Obama of two of his closest aides and an influx of replacements will take their places within the West Wing.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:Daniel Pipes.Istinja' with the Torah and New Testament.My reference in a column today, "'Rushdie Rules' Reach Florida," included this sentence: "A 2003 decree ruled the Bible suitable for use by Muslims when cleaning after defecation." That allusion deserves further explanation.The link goes to Fatwa #40378 of The Encyclopedia of Fatwas (Arabic: Mawsu'at al-Fatawi) on www.islamweb.net. Issued on November 23, 2003, it contains the standard question-and-answer format of a fatwa and reads thus in English translation:Judgment: Despising the Torah or the New Testament.Question: "Does someone who insults the Torah or the New Testament engage in apostasy, given that these include some words of God?"Answer: "It would be impermissible to disdain the Torah and New Testament if they contained the truth and the name of the exalted, such as the name of God the Most High. Whoever does this [i.e., disrespect the books] knowingly and by choice would be considered an apostate and would be despised by God. But [in fact] the Torah and New Testament do not have anything exalted in them. They are known to have been corrupted, so there is no problem disdaining them.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

SEIU Union Hack Admits that Local TV Stations Help ‘Get Our Message Across’.Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has a gem of a report wherein a union operative admits on tape that he and his union pals intend to launch a big campaign against Wisconsin’s GOP Gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker. That news isn’t much of a surprise, of course, but what is a surprise is that this union hack admitted on tape that Milwaukee’s local TV stations and local politicians are both sympathetic to and assisting in the union’s getting its message out.The union hack admitted on tape that he is working with County Board members — such as Supervisor John Weishan — to get the goods on Walker. “I’ve got county supervisors to do this stuff so, you know, it’s not just the labor union,” Morgan said.That is bad enough but what union hitman Morgan said of the local media is the most interesting.Read the full scam story here and more here.Click here for comments.

P5+1 Says Door Still Open For Talks With Iran.The six world powers looking to curb Iran's controversial nuclear program say they remain "determined and united" to seek a diplomatic resolution to the standoff.In a statement that Ashton read to reporters, the countries expressed their readiness for engagement with Iran. "Our objective continues to be a comprehensive long-term negotiated solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," she said.Although Russia does have business ties to Tehran, Rojansky said a more significant reason for Moscow's opposition is the possibility that Iran could insert itself in Russia's regional unrest."The issue is that Iran has a sort of Sword of Damocles (eds: threat) hanging over Russia in the Caucasus," Rojansky said. "Iran could begin to much more substantially fund and arm Islamist insurgents operating either in the Caucasus or even potentially in Russia itself and threaten Russian more than it does today. The other side of that coin is Russia really doesn't currently feel threatened by Iran and so it's looking to keep that status quo exactly the way it is."Late today, Iran's English-language state Press TV reported that an Iranian delegation headed by the country's Atomic Energy Organization chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, had met with IAEA chief Yukiya Amano in Vienna "to discuss providing fuel for the Tehran research reactor."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

Outrage--Obama claims citizens have no privacy.In a direct Nazi-and-Communist styled attack on a time-honored American value, the Obama Administration claims that citizens have no privacy.The privacy issue in this case involves GPS tracking devices. The Administration is urging a federal appeals court to allow the government to attach the tracking devices to vehicles sitting in private driveways, monitoring their every move, without a Court warrant.The administration, in urging the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to reverse a three-judge panel’s August ruling from the same court, said Monday that Americans should expect no privacy while in public.Although the case in question refers specifically to criminals, the key to understanding the outrage and the threat to the privacy of ALL citizens is in the phrase, '...Americans should expect no privacy while in public.'Two key problems rest with this unconscionable theory.First, the government's argument maintains that 'public' refers to a vehicle sitting in a driveway on private property. The Feds want to be able to trespass on private property in order to attach a GPS tracking device on private vehicles. It is quite a stretch to consider private property to be 'in public.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

HT:TheJawaReport.AP Stringer Arrested for Working for .... the Taliban.Two journalists were actually detained. One was a stringer for the AP named Rahmatullah Nekzad who also did freelance work for al Jazeera. The other guy is named Mohammed Nader and worked for al Jazeera.How were they linked to the Taliban?"Afghan and coalition forces had intelligence information linking the men to Taliban propaganda networks." The Committee to Protect Journalists is up in arms because, um, journalists can't be terrorists. I think by definition, right?Where have we heard Rahmatullah Nekzad's name before? He stood by and took pictures and a video as the Taliban murdered two women in 2008. He actually knew the women were going to be executed and went to document the Taliban's meting out of "punishment" anyway after he had notified the AP of his intention.... and no one at the AP thought the imminent murder of two women was noteworthy enough to notify US, ISAF, or Afghan authorities.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

Egyptian Newspaper Features Two Blood Libel Articles in a Single Day .( Algemeiner ).An Egyptian newspaper featured two articles on Tuesd...

In Memory Of Alexander Munch (1948 - 2012).

Israeli Six-Day War Vet.

Previous Blogs here and here."
If liberty means anything at all, it means
the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." George Orwell.

Comments advice.

Visitors & commenters of this Blog are advised that they will be held responsible for any unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive, threatening, or harmful material of any kind or nature posted by their respective ISP. Visitors are cautioned not to transmit via comments, including links to any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation. Comments here are typically unmoderated and unedited. The fact that particular comments remain on the site in no way constitutes the site owner's endorsement of commenters' views.

Wafa Sultan .

"Telling the truth after proper investigation is the height of courage." - Wafa Sultan.

Ibn Q. al-Rassooli

I Stand With Israel !

Koran 7:7, where G-d Himself bequeaths the Land of Israel to the Jews, as a nation who thought themselves weak, and blesses them with goodness.Source

Shariah: The Threat to America

This book is based on the statements of the world's leading Shariah authorities and Shariah academic scholars.

The Abuse of Holocaust Memory.

Myths of Islam

"Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual."

Amanullah Khan - King of Afghanistan (1919-1929).

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, head of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world.“The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam,” said Sheikh Tantawi, vowing to ban it in Al-Azhar schools.After the girl complied he insisted she should not wear it any more.“I tell you again that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom. I understand the religion better than you and your parents.” The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar imam vowed to issue a ban against the face-veil in all schools linked to Al-Azhar.“Source

The Jewish Holocaust.

The Armenian Holocaust.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: https://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/copyright.act.chapt1b.html & http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.No infringement intended. This blog is for educational and information purposes only.